Coach Poole shines after taking Camp fire

It is said that the Uefa pro licence, now a mandatory qualification in major footballing nations, deals with the whole range of skills needed by the modern-day manager. However no amount of time spent in a lecture hall, on a training round or, for that matter, six years working alongside Sam Allardyce, could have prepared Phil Brown for the extraordinary events of the past 72 hours.

On Friday evening Lee Camp's father, having learned that his goalkeeper son was to be dropped, called a radio phone-in to voice his disapproval even though the Derby manager's decision was not public knowledge at the time. He also criticised the standard of coaching, somewhat ironically, given that Brown had already decided that his 42-year-old goalkeeping coach, Kevin Poole, would replace Camp for the Leicester match.

Dealing with an irate parent, however, hardly equates to hearing 20,000 people chant "You don't know what you're doing". That was how the Derby supporters reacted when the manager withdrew Paul Peschisolido in the second half. Little more than five minutes later they turned on the club's summer signing Stern John, urging Brown to "get him off".

"I do know what I'm doing and as far as I'm concerned I don't have to justify my selection or substitutions," said Brown, who claimed he had decided Peschisolido would not play 90 minutes before the game because the striker was suffering from fatigue after Wednesday evening's defeat at Leeds.

That might be so, but doom and gloom has engulfed Pride Park after nine matches without a win though Brown, who will speak to Camp when he returns from England Under-21 duty, remains defiant about the task ahead. "I fully intend to see this job through," he said.

"If I take the guy that's nearest to me in football, Sam Allardyce, he went to Notts County having been sacked from jail by Owen Oyston [the former Blackpool chairman] and couldn't get a win for the first 14 or 15 games and then turned the corner and won the [the 1997-98 Third Division] championship. You have got to stick through these tough times."

Brown might well claim that Peschisolido's substitution was justified after his replacement, Mounir El Hamdaoui, hammered home an 89th-minute equaliser to cancel out Iain Hume's first goal for Leicester, though Derby fans will take far more convincing that John is the real deal. "I brought the player to this football club so therefore they should give me the stick if they don't think he's good enough," said Brown.

"If I don't think he's good enough I won't play him. I know Stern John is good enough. He thought his career was going nowhere at Coventry and after the stick he got [on Saturday] he'll probably feel his career is going backwards, but there's a good player in there."

John was singled out by Derby fans after he squandered his second excellent chance of the afternoon. That looked like being a costly miss when Hume chipped over Poole with five minute remaining, though El Hamdaoui salvaged a point and some relief for his manager when he dispatched Adam Bolder's through ball beyond Paul Henderson.

It was a goal that left Craig Levein bitterly disappointed. "A lack of experience told in the latter stages," the Leicester manager said.

The visitors enjoyed the better of a lively second half only to be denied on several occasions by Poole, who produced fine saves to deny Hume, Mark de Vries and Danny Tiatto. "There was more pressure on Kevin than what he needed," said Brown, referring to the Camp controversy, "but he more than stepped up to the plate."